A Tale of 2 Guys Hunting the Kansas Prairie

Posts Tagged mule deer

We just returned from our 4 day hunting trip, the Good Wife and I. We had a blast this year, it was a great year. The Good Wife got her first deer. Keith’s dad took the best buck of his hunting career. And a new deer hunter, Keith’s son, nearly shot his first. With a flintlock none the less!

It was truly great seeing my wife shoot her first whitetail deer. She took a great shot. It was nice 10 point, but one brow tine was completely broke off and another tine was half gone. Still, a nice buck for her first deer. Nicely done my dear!

Keith’s father, Wes, shot a really nice looking muley this year. The best of he’s ever shot. And he has shot a deer almost every year he’s hunted. We’re talking over 40 years here. I would have like to have seen it play out, he had to stalk it a bit and hold the shot for several minutes until the muley buck came out from behind some bushes. Nice 70 yd shot with a cap and ball muzzleloader, that he built by the way.

The photos are below, hope you enjoy. Let us know how you did this year.

To all the hunters heading out tomorrow for opening day of the Kansas Firearms Deer Season, good luck! May your shots be straight and true.

It looks to be fairly decent weather, not quite as cold as the last couple of years. This is the first time in 3 years that I’ll miss the opening! I can’t make it out until the last weekend of the season when I take my daughter out. So save a couple of deer for us alright?

The title sounds pretty cool doesn’t it. It would be, if I had actually taken a deer with it! You see, I am writing to you as a failed hunter.

I am deerless for the Kansas rifle deer season of 2009 and it’s my own fault. See I had this plan; I was only going to shoot a big buck if the opportunity presented itself during muzzle loading season. Because my plan, was to shoot a deer (any deer) with my original Spencer 56-50 rifle during rifle season.

Plains Hunter, dedicated to hunting with historical weapons, I thought my plan would be cool, right?

So I was not upset when I did not get a deer during Muzzleloading season.

Flash forward to Opening evening of rifle season. I’m on the stand when a really nice buck (the one Bill missed during ML season) presents itself 135 yards out. I draw a bead and fire. A clean miss. I forgot to take into account the 183 MPH cross wind. Some where in Oklahoma a farmer is thinking “How did I get that giant bullet hole in my John Deere”?).

One hour later two smaller bucks, a spike and a ragged six point, run down the hill 20 yards to my right and stop 30 yards in front of me. This is where my plan went south. I start thinking: “You know… that big buck will probably be back… It’s only the first day of rifle season… It would be a shame to end the season sooo soon.”

Meanwhile, Dad and Jim are hunting without much success.

Bill arrives Thursday and begins his tragic battle with Buck Fever. In Bill’s case Buck Fever doesn’t properly describe it. Is there such a thing as Buck Cancer? Or at least Buck H1N1? Seriously Bill should see someone. If cost is an issue maybe the Shriners can help. I don’t believe anyone should have to suffer like that. Three shots, ALL at BUCKS! Not a single doe shot. Deer know, I swear they know! If a deer can sniff out Buck Fever maybe they can sniff out other deadly diseases. I think I’m on to something here. I’m going to contact the Mayo Clinic.

Speaking of animals with extraordinary abilities; Every time I walked to any deer stand, carrying only a rifle, a pheasant would flush perfectly; RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!

But while pheasant hunting just a month ago, carrying a shot gun, DEER WERE FLUSHING EVERYWHERE! They Know!… I’m telling you they know!… DON’T CALL ME CRAZY! THEY KNOW!

Uh hem.. I digress. A few days into the season I’m hunting on a different stand. Two does, a shooter buck, and the FATHER OF ALL MONSTER BUCKS is standing thirty yards away. Then the Monster walks within twenty yards and TURNS BROAD SIDE! Then he stands on his hind legs and FLIPS ME OFF! WHY? Because he is a MULE DEER and I have a WHITE TAIL ONLY license! My Dad has an either species license and Bill has an either species license. I change stands so Dad or Bill will get a shot at the muleys. Neither one sees them. After Dad and Bill return home, I return to the stand and the mule deer are BACK! I’M TELLING YOU THEY KNOW!

Slightly changing the subject, I’m not much of a tech guy, Bill can tell you that. But before deer season, I decided I just HAD to have a range finder. So I bought one. Pretty neat little gadget. That’s how I know I missed that buck at 135 yards. Seems like I paid a pretty steep price for a gadget that’s only usefulness is to tell me how far away the deer was that I missed.

I bought another item I thought would be a lot handier. I bought a set of insulated coveralls. And they are pretty nice, warm. The problem is that I have always worn a size XL. So I bought a size XL. I’ve packed on a few pounds lately (Noo problem I’ll lose the weight after the holidays, like I planned last year). I sure don’t want coveralls that are too big. So ultimately I paid a pretty steep price for coveralls that fit like a scuba suit. Which wouldn’t be so much of a problem, but I didn’t try putting a rifle to my shoulder wearing my scuba suit until I was sitting on the ground at my deer stand. Consequently, if …I lean back… Juuust righhht… and stretch my arm just sooo…and lean my head waaay down… I can kind of get a sight picture and almost reach the trigger at the same time.

Ultimately Dad saved us from getting skunked by shooting a white tail doe. He shot it with his 50-95 1876 Winchester (I personally think Dad just put a Sheriff’s Office salvage tag on a doe that was killed in a collision with an 18 wheeler.) That 50-95 messed that deer up!

The second week of deer season a cold front moved in. One would think in this day and age of high technology the weather forecasters would have better instruments. Our local weatherman stated the temperature was down into the single digits. I know for a fact that the on my stand the average morning temperature actually hovered around 77 degrees below zero. I’m not kidding, cold like that would have killed a normal man.

On the last Saturday I took a friend and two of his sons out hunting. One of his boys shot a button buck with an M-14 with iron sights at 200 yards (I know it was 200 yards because I used my rangefinder!). An M-14 is a historical rifle, kind of.

The final Sunday of the season I rested against a fence post looking out over a milo field and watched a beautiful western Kansas Sunset. I even relaxed smoking my pipe. The wind was in my face so I wasn’t concerned anything behind me would scent me anyway. The light was fading fast so I decided to hunt my way back to the truck and leisurely set about securing my items and stood up. Just in time to see the whitetails fifty yards BEHIND me hauling away. WHAT THE *#@+!! THEY KNOW! I’m telling you THEY KNOW!!

On the plus side the very historical former chicken coop (I’m not kidding) now hunting lodge has come a long way this year. We have a fridge so we no longer have to deal w/ice for beverages, food etc. And we have a TV and DVD player. Now I know many of you are saying that watching TV ruins the historical atmosphere of our hunting experience. Not True! We only watch WESTERNS! John Wayne shooting Comanches, just after the Civil War with a 94 Winchester is very authentic and only enhances our western hunting lifestyle!

I just finished my third season deer hunting and I’m having a hard time deciding how I feel about the outcome it. For the most part, I’m very disappointed. I came home empty handed after spending about eight days in the field altogether between the two seasons. And that doesn’t even count my scouting time out there. But on the other hand, I experienced a lot of pretty cool things. So let me start from the beginning.

I started out in September during Kansas’ muzzleloading season. We had scoped out a couple of good looking spots, seen some deer and lots of sign. My first four days of that season were a bust. The prairie seemed to swallow all the deer we had seen through out the summer. I went back out the last weekend of muzzleloading season only to blow a great shot at a 10 point just 30 yards out. I won’t go through it again, you can read about it here.

OK, learn my lessons, spend some more time at the gun range, there’s always rifle season in December.

Two long months later I’m back out in the field. I’m still using the 50 caliber plains rifle as I have a muzzleloader only any species tag. My first morning out, I go back to the spot of the blown September shot and sure enough, I rattle an eight point in right at sun up.

It was my first time with rattling. Plus I wasn’t sure if there was still enough rut going on for it to work. The whitetail buck came up from my right (south of me) and I was looking away for the most part as generally, the deer come from the north on this stand. I didn’t realize he was even there until he was about 10 feet from me. I realized he was there when I saw deer tail running away from me. He ran about 30 yards out up on top of the ridge, stopped and watched me from head on.

Now, it took me a few minutes to get my heart out of my throat. Well, actually, I never did. The buck shook me so much by just appearing like that. It’s amazing how they can appear like phantoms some times. So now the buck is just standing there watching me and I’m trying to do a 180 degree turn so I can get my rifle up on him. And how is it they always come up from the way I’m not looking?

It took me a few minutes of moving very slowly between times of him looking away or down. I was moving in fractions of an inch sometimes. I finally get to where I’ve got him in my sites, but I’m a nervous wreck after all that and my heart is still beating like mad in my ears. Plus, he’s still head on at me. I’m a little panicky because I can’t decide where to aim. I know what to do when they’re broadside, but hadn’t considered a head on shot. So I just keep aiming and waiting to see if he’ll turn.

He finally turns and gives me a beauty of a shot. I aim… BLAM! He disappears over the ridge and I sit and wait for a minute then decide to belly crawl up the ridge so I can see over. I glass him down in the valley (or what passes for one in SW KS) and watch him for about 15-20 minutes. I watch him lay down in this draw and I’m elated thinking I took him down.

I mark the spot, sit down and drink a cup of coffee. Take care of some other business (you know) and decide to go investigate. I marked him about 300 yards out. I’m getting a little nervous walking towards him because I’m not picking up a blood trail but hope that maybe he ran a little erratic rather than the direct route I’m going. I’m walking up to the spot I marked only to see him jump up and run off over another ridge (in a field I don’t have permission on). He had jumped a fence prior to laying down, so I back track to see if I can pick up a blood trail but I can’t find one. I go back to where I shot at him and can’t pick up one there either. I missed again.

I managed to rattle another buck in the next evening at another stand. This one was a smaller mule deer, probably a 3×3 (which still looks pretty impressive). I was amazed it worked really. He came in over a ridge and was very cautious. I could only see him from the neck up for quite awhile. Funny thing, as soon as I saw his head, my heart is banging back in my ears again. I’m trying to calm myself down but all I can think is “here we go again” and for a moment, I almost decide to not shoot. Not sure I can take the disappointment of missing again.

But that only lasts for a moment.

I try to settle down as he approaches my stand. I’m going through all the stuff to remember… aim off his shoulder… keep it low… squeeze don’t pull… calm down, you know what to do. You know, all the stuff everyone tells you to do.

Finally the buck is broadside and in my sweet spot again, probably just under 40 yards. I set up my shot, squeeze the trigger… BLAM! The muley scampers off back the way he came. And no blood trail again. I look for quite awhile but the sun had since gone down. I can’t find anything remotely looking like a blood trail.

Dejected, I walk back to deer camp. I actually think about telling everyone I didn’t see anything, but I come clean. The next morning I go back out for the last time this year. This is it. About an hour after sun up the rain and sleet starts coming down. Black powder doesn’t do to well in the wet. The stuff wasn’t supposed to show until later in the day and I didn’t have any of my rain gear with me. I walk back to camp again truly disappointed.

I’ve thought about those three missed shots a lot and played them over in my head again and again trying to figure out what I did wrong. I’m sure it all comes down to my marksmanship. I’m totally amazed that I was able to rattle those two bucks in, that was first and definitely a thrill.

All three times I had a hard time getting my breathing under control and that heart-beating-in-my-ears thing is a bit distracting when trying to concentrate on shot placement. The other thing that I’m wondering is if I’m just not that confident with this rifle yet. The doe I took during my first season hunting was with my Enfield and I had put a ton of lead down range with it before taking it out in the field. I’m pretty confident with shot placement on that gun. Not so much with the Plains rifle. I’ve shot a lot with it, but I’m no where near as confident with it compared to the Enfield.

So that’s what I’m going with and that’s what I’m going to work on before next September in 2010. I’m planning on doing some work to it, changing the sites to a more traditional site and reworking the stock finish. Hopefully the new sites will help and I can get more comfortable with it.

So my seasons over, there isn’t any meat in the freezer – at least not venison. But, I’ll be back next year, because I’ve got a fever and the only cure is more deer hunting.

Since I’m still fairly new to this deer hunting thing, I thought I might lay out a few things I’ve picked up that no one seems to tell a new hunter about. Hopefully, this can help other greenhorns out.

Check the weather – religiously. I seem to constantly under-dress for the elements. And check the weather for where you’re going to hunt, not where you live as they could be different. The weather conditions can differ fairly significantly from where I live and where I hunt, and it’s only a 3 hour difference. Bring more cold weather gear than you’ll think you need, because you’ll need it. You can take stuff off if you get hot, you can’t put stuff on when you get cold if you didn’t bring it.

Sorry for being a little gross, but clear all the phlegm and mucus out before you head out to your stand. Nothing is more loud than clearing your throat when the sun comes up in the morning.

Learn to sit still. This is still hard for me to do. Don’t jump and look around at every little noise, most likely it’s not a deer, but the sudden movement can tip them off if they’re sitting in the margins looking around.

In the area I hunt, the deer definitely have have schedules. They seem to wander through the same fields and waterholes about every 2-3 days. This last season, the buck I missed was on a 3 day schedule. Keith picked it up, predicted they’d show that Saturday night, and they did. I had suspected this, and started watching this myself. Other hunters I’ve talked to have said the same thing. But I don’t hear anyone talk about it, even in the hunting magazines. Now if I can just figure out 2 stands that have deer traffic on alternate days, that would be awesome.

This one is the most important, especially to the married guys. Thank your wife for keeping the fort under control while you’re out. Thank her a lot. Really. Let me say it one more time, thank your wife for keeping the house and family under control while your out hunting. A simple thank you will go a LONG way. Believe me. I can’t say this one enough. My wife’s awesome. She let me go hunting on our wedding anniversary. Yes, I said “let.”

Those are just a few things I’ve picked up the last couple of hunts. What other tips have you picked up along the way? Leave your tips in the comments.

Well, the opening of muzzleloading deer season didn’t turn out as I had hoped. The weather hadn’t been as cooperative as I had wanted, which kept the farmers out of their corn fields. Which in turn, kept the deer in the corn fields. So, unfortunately for me (but not for the deer), I didn’t see any through the last few days of the hunt.

I was a bit apprehensive on the first day since none of the corn fields were being worked on when I got there. But that first morning, I saw 5 mule deer does running about 200 yards out from where I was sitting. They never did come into my area that day, but I had hopes for the remaining 4 days.

The second day was different though. I had a doe come running by me right after sunset. She was about 40-50 yards out. I decided to let her go since I still had 3 days left. Bad decision. She was the last deer I saw during the day for the rest of the week.

I sat on a different stand the next day, came up empty. Went back to my original stand on the 4th day. Nothing. I saw more deer at night driving back to camp then I did during the day. It was certainly disappointing. But hey, that’s why it’s called hunting and not getting, right?

I would love to go back this weekend, as I’ve heard that a few farmers are cutting the corn. Not sure if I have the time or not. Most likely, I’ll be back out there in December during rifle season, braving the cold again. Believe me, I’d rather fight the mosquitoes than the frigid cold temperatures like last year.